NCAA Cost Deficit Analysis

Universities and NCAA Division I athletic programs are closely connected in many ways. One of the main ways these two are connected is based on finances. There are several financial positions that are established. While all points display problems with the finances, these perspectives are different problems. One perspective is that financial spending is usually not self-sustainable with rising costs, showing a need to use as many resources as possible to keep the programs alive. Some think that the limit of resources should be better distributed to academic spending. Some think that there are resources that are available for students to be paid as employees. My position is that some spending should be cut away from athletics, as it is proven …show more content…
Many have the notion that these athletic programs are self-sustaining, but the money required to run them comes from a multitude of sources just for an individual program to stay afloat. It suggests that the cutting of other resources to cover the high costs may be justified to keep the programs alive. For some colleges however, that still would not be enough, as outside donations are needed to not go into the red. Subsidized dollars were used to hide the true number of actual profitable NCAA programs, thus overvaluing them. In the 2011 fiscal year, only seven of 255 public universities were not subsidized. Those seven colleges had a host of resources such as television contracts, alumni donations, and corporate sponsorships. Many colleges had to look into the student fees as well as their own resources, just to break even, with most not even achieving that. Investment is done towards athletics as it is far easier to make national publicity by winning a championship than to make national publicity of an equivalent accomplishment in another campus department. Continued investment causes the rich to get richer, and the poor to get poorer as universities try to spend more just to compete and keep up with other universities. It seems to be a never ending arms race. Spending distribution …show more content…
However, the university earns millions annually, including donations, sponsorships, and other sources of revenue. This raises the question of whether the NCAA and universities should treat students as if they are employees, because some feel they should be able to see financial gain performing for their respective university. There was the Northwestern Union case in 2014, where the National Labor Relations Board granted the College Athletes Players Association’s petition for athletes to be recognized as employees, driven by the Northwestern football team. It was granted as it was recognized that they brought in revenue for the university, and were paid back in full scholarships. The scholarship could be lost by minor team role infractions. Therefore, students lost control of their athletic and personal lives to strict regulations. They were essentially employees. This ruling was short lived however, as the university appealed and the case was not upheld as it had the potential to set a dangerous precedent once under review. However, it was clear that the NLRB is watching and can once again intervene if treatment changes to scholarship players (towards the NCAA) were subsequent. Berger vs. NCAA was also in the same time period shortly after the previous case, however it went against the U. of Penn athletes, as the work they performed seemed to benefit them more than the school. Further